


Whence the Wise Man Came

by runawayballista



Category: Baten Kaitos
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-07-27
Updated: 2011-10-10
Packaged: 2017-10-21 20:06:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/229234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/runawayballista/pseuds/runawayballista
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>He had not always been known as Wiseman. Long ago, when his body had still held the shape of a man, he had been called Alniyat.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I

He had not always been known as Wiseman. Long ago, when his body had still held the shape of a man, he had been called Alniyat.

He hadn't been born in lands known to all men. There had been a city far north of the Heartlands, a great river wedged between them, that had stood long before the people of Naos became stranded in their own ship, before the grounds of Atria had become scarred and smoky. The great city of Fomalhaut never deigned to consort with men from beyond its borders, which were defined by high walls made of brick and mortar so old that they were obscured almost entirely by ivies and moss. Alniyat had been born within these walls and baptized under the stars in the waters of the holy Lake Tegmen, and for many years, he saw only what was contained within the city's walls.

When he was of age, he was moved from the stables and appointed as a page to learn a craft, as per the customs of their people. The caretakers in the stables had noticed that he was quick of wit and curious about all ways of the world, and so he was placed in the home of the scholar Tetra, who put him up in the small room which had previously been used for storage and, despite now being Alniyat's living quarters, was still tightly lined with aged and creaking shelves packed with books and scrolls.

Tetra was a strange man, as Alniyat quickly discovered. He seemed more interested in the fact that he had someone to help and to listen to his mad talks of science than the care of the boy with whose care he had been entrusted. But queer as he was, Tetra was most definitely brilliant, and it wasn't long before Alniyat, too, was seduced by the fanciful alchemies he practiced.

His main school of study these days was the pursuit of the true essence of all things. At first, Alniyat dismissed such a ridiculous notion. He had always observed the world to be a matter of extreme complexity -- certainly, there was a particular wonder to it, but that only belied further the intricate ways in which the world worked. The idea that everything could be boiled down to one, simple essence was so obtuse -- so amateuristic -- that it very nearly offended Alniyat's scientific sensibilities. No researcher worth his salt could really believe in so simple a solution.

It became evident over time, however, that Tetra did. Alniyat, disgusted in his youthful thinking by what he perceived to be useless pursuits, would often try to retire early, if only to escape the steel cage of Tetra's insistent ravings, but his master would have none of it. He required his page to remain at his side for every measured minute of research, and after all, what good was a page if he was of no assistance? But as Alniyat passed night after night in Tetra's presence, watching the candle burn down to the very end of its wick, the mad lectures slowly began to permeate his thinking. And as Alniyat observed, unwillingly drawn into the mysterious research Tetra conducted, he began to understand.

It was difficult to grasp at first, and Alniyat only began to sympathize with Tetra's reasoning in small, sudden shards of understanding. But there was a kind of logic weaved in with every sputtering word Tetra spoke, and as Alniyat began to see it, the pieces slowly -- begrudgingly -- began to fall into place. Tetra was a madman, that wasn't to be denied. But he was still brilliant, and he worked a kind of magic with his words over time, enchanting Alniyat to come around to this new kind of science. In the endless nights he spent picking seemingly ordinary objects apart, staring at them for hours under his magnification device, he was doing much more than simply looking. He was looking into the very heart of things, as Alniyat learned -- a notion which seemed preposterous at first, but Alniyat learned in Tetra's presence that there was much more to the world than met the naked eye. There were energies which whispered through the air, through their very bodies, alive and unseen, and it was these energies that kept the world turning. There was an essence to everything which was in constant communication with its sisters and brothers, and if they could decipher its properties -- harness them -- there was no end to the possibilities for advancement in their society. Alniyat came to be convinced that Tetra's research would be the way of the future.

But it was slow to bear fruit. Although once prized as one of the city's greatest minds, Tetra began to fall out of public favor as his research dredged on with no concrete results to bear for it. All he had to show for his work, after so many years, were theories -- strange and enticing theories, to be sure, and ones that posed very real possibilities, but theories alone, and the staunchly pragmatic men of Fomalhaut had no taste for theories without tangible evidence.

But even as the public turned her face away from Tetra in disgust, he and Alniyat labored on. They were enthralled by the research, by the weeks of frustration with only the tiniest reward, and in the throes of their intellectual pursuits, they nearly lost themselves to time itself.


	2. II

Tetra had a number of peculiar habits that marked him not as a brilliant scholar, but rather as a man of many eccentricities. He had a designated space for his daily meditations, a cramped corner of the house where the walls seemed to lean and sink in ways that tricked the eye. To Alniyat's untrained eye, the arrangement of the sitting-rug and candles and various stacks of papers that occupied the space seemed haphazard and unseemly; but Tetra insisted that Alniyat never touch this part of the house, never alter the order of things in his personal meditation space lest he disturb the carefully constructed flow of energy about it.

Tetra never kept to anything resembling a schedule with his meditation. Some mornings Alniyat would rise from his cot in his narrow bedroom and find that Tetra was already deep in thought, his legs crossed over the now threadbare sitting-rug, and the page would do his best to sit silently so as not to disturb his master. Other days, Tetra would abruptly break off in the middle of their scholarly pursuits and retreat to his corner without a word of explanation to Alniyat, leaving his page bewildered and frustrated. Some days, he would meditate for hours on end; others, it would be a scarce quarter hour before he leapt from the corner with an alarming gasp and immediately begin speaking animatedly to Alniyat as if already in the middle of a conversation. In spite of all this, however, Tetra was fanatically consistent with his meditation in that he did it at least once a day. Alniyat thought it queer to be a man of both science and religion, but somehow Tetra never seemed in conflict between the two. He had vividly colorful disagreements with the priesthood, that was to be sure, but when it came down to it, he was a man of spirit.

"Why do you do that?" Alniyat asked, careful to keep the scathing tone from his voice. Tetra, having just risen from his meditation, was carefully picking candle wax out from his hair.

"Do what?"

"Meditate every day." Alniyat tried to catch the bits of candle wax as Tetra flicked them carelessly from his fingers. "It seems a pointless waste of time. What purpose does it serve?"

Tetra grunted, and cleaned out a fingernail on his teeth. "It strengthens the heart." Alniyat failed to contain his derisive snort, and Tetra turned his eyes upon him, the heat of a glare in them.

"Do you think it amusing, boy?"

"What science is there in religion?" Alniyat scoffed. "The indolent meditations of the priesthood are nothing more than a waste of valuable time. They serve no purpose in the pursuit of knowledge. This so-called strengthening of your heart is nothing more than a trick of the priests to make you think their words have value."

Alniyat's voice was full of conviction, but Tetra looked unshaken. The glare fading from his eyes, he scrutinized Alniyat's young face, his bristly upper lip twisted to one side in thought.

"You speak of blasphemy, you know."

"Against what authority? The priesthood does nothing but babble about fanciful miracles. I've never seen any such things." Alniyat brushed the bits of candle wax from his hands into the waste bin. He regretted having started this line of conversation at all. Now they were piddling away valuable time that could be put into research on small points of philosophy.

"Tell me, boy -- were you baptized in the waters of Lake Tegmen?"

"Everyone is. I was an infant." Alniyat's tone was guarded, defensive.

"And the caretakers, they told me you served in the priesthood?"

"Only briefly." His face darkened slightly. "I didn't like it. I was just a child, but even then I could see through their charlatanism."

Tetra's expression hardly flickered, and he veered the subject around a sharp corner. "And what do you think is the purpose of a strong heart?"

"It serves no purpose," Alniyat said stubbornly. "It's merely a trick of words to lead the masses."

"But what do the priests say?"

"How should I know?" The page's voice was full of scorn and impatience now. He was quickly tiring of this line of inquiry.

"Don't be petulant, boy. Tell me what the priests say about the strength of the heart."

Alniyat felt his jaw clench of its own volition. "They say it allows them to connect with the gods among the stars," he said, most grudgingly, "and that they can pass on their miracles with strong hearts."

"And don't they just -- every sundown? When the stars rise, don't they send up the signal fires without a flint or tinder in sight?" Tetra smiled bitterly at him. "And you claim to have seen no miracles."

"You don't mean to say that you believe those are _miracles_ , do you?" Alniyat suddenly felt betrayed. He'd thought Tetra to be a man of true scientific thought -- a man in the pursuit of all knowledge -- but here he was revealed to be nothing but a charlatan, a believer in the false prophecies preached by the Fomalhaut priesthood. "You can't believe they cast those fires on their own!"

"You served in the priesthood. You've been close enough to see for yourself." Tetra arched one bushy eyebrow at Alniyat and pursed his lips. "Tell me, boy, if you're an expert -- where do the fires come from, then?"

"They must have a flint hidden in their sleeves," Alniyat said stubbornly. "Perhaps a mechanism that sparks it and makes it appear as though they cast the fires themselves."

"And so they shoot fire out their sleeves -- that would leave a burn, wouldn't you say?" Tetra remained as stony-faced as ever, scratching at his unruly whiskers. A pettier man would have smiled by now. "Did you ever see marks on their hands? Or ever hear a cry of pain? Because surely even the devout suffer and feel pain, don't you think?"

Alniyat fumbled for a rebuttal, but he found none. He stared at Tetra petulantly, his mouth puckered in the sourest expression his young face could manage. Tetra merely harrumphed and turned his back to the boy, shuffling for the cluttered tabletop upon which his myriad papers were haphazardly piled. Alniyat started after him, still fumbling for words.

"You -- you don't really believe in something so foolish as _magic_ , do you? You're a scientist! You can't!"

Tetra craned his neck to give a withering look at Alniyat over his shoulder, not bothering to turn himself around fully from his place at the table. Alniyat faltered under the look, drawing himself back half a step. "Perhaps you should spend some time meditating yourself," Tetra said, his voice full of acid, "and ponder exactly what you think _magic_ to be. Then, perhaps, you'll be ready to join me in my studies."


End file.
